This thread is prompted by an interaction with @[email protected] . I’m going to talk about Indian food in general and South Indian food in particular . Fellow folks from India , chime in with particulars of your regional cuisine and let’s make this place a little apolitical and flavorful hmmmm ?
@[email protected] so I’ll start with the cuisine I’m most familiar with . I hail from Tamilnadu and specifically from a wonderful city called Coimbatore. The cuisine from this region uses coconut , lentils , tomatoes and other spices as a base for both plant based and meat based dishes
Now I’ll talk about some of my favorite dishes and some other famous dishes from Tamilnadu . Our breakfast involves either Idli or Dosa , both made from fermented rice-lentil batter . Idlis are soft like pillows whereas Dosas are crepes and are super crispy . Sometimes , Dosas have fillings which are called masalas
Other breakfast mains include Aapam < a softer fluffier dosa > , Sevai < comparable to Angel Hair pasta made from rice > , Idiyappam < Sevai , in a connected round manner > and Paniyaaram < which is difficult to explain but so so yummy > . The accompaniments to breakfast are typically a plant based or meat based gravy. There’s Sambhar a lentil and tamarind broth and coconut chutney . Then there is Onion Chutney , Tomato Chutney and so many other different varieties.
For meat based accompaniments , I’d go by my family friend’s preferences and choices . There’s meen Kozhambu < Fish gravy> that people love to eat with appam or dosa . There’s chicken gravy and mutton gravy too . Then there are several Kurumas. Both the plant based and meat based variants use coconut milk . Then there is Paaya and Sodhi which again use coconut as a base
Lunch is always rice . We eat plain rice with Sambhar < a different variety of it is made for lunch > , Rasam < tomato broth > , vegetable curries and plant or meat based gravies . Some popular plant based gravies are kootu which is split lentil and vegetables , Aviyal < which is a yoghurt , coconut and green chilli based vegetable stew > , poricha kootu < which is a black pepper based broth , mor kozhambu < a yoghurt based gravy > and more
Some popular meat based accompaniments are fish fry < there are so many varieties of it like Vanjaram , Netthili etc > , aatukaal soup < a popular variant of mutton soup > , kola urundai , bone broth , karuvaadu < salted fish from the coastal regions > , chicken gravy and mutton gravy . If you have a kerala connect , Beef curry / Beef gravy is super popular and so is pickled sea food
Also any Malayali’s on the local feed . Someone talk about Parotta , puttu, kadalakkari and beef gravy no
@Karaboondi while on it, we should find any Portugese to confirm if it is indeed true that #Puttu originated in #Portugal
@beyess oh that’s something I didn’t know .